Alex Rodrik from COMICS BULLETIN talks with the creator, writer and illustrator of LEGENDS: THE ENCHANTED, Nick Percival

Alex Rodrik: Thanks for taking the time to talk with me and Comics Bulletin!

Nick Percival: No problem.

AR: Tell us a bit about yourself. How’d you get involved with comics and the arts in general?

NP: Comics have always been a part of my life and after the delights of managing a comic book store here in the UK, I got my artwork noticed by the editors at 2000AD. This led to me painting a lot of Judge Dredd andSlaine material for them as well as numerous other stuff, covers, posters, stuff for Marvel, trading cards, etc. Alongside the comic book work, I also moved more into concept and production artwork for videogames and Film which got me into computer graphics and high-end CG animation. I worked as a CGI animation director for a number of years but was always busy developing my own projects alongside all this which ultimately led to creating Legends: The Enchanted.

AR: What’s the story behind Legends?

NP:Legends is set in a damaged, violent and sinister post-industrial world surrounded with bizarre technology, twisted nature and dark magic — a very dangerous place. The story revolves around a fragmented and conflicted group of powerful characters known as the Enchanted — rogue, adult versions of the classic characters from folklore and fairytales that in this universe have always existed, some in secret, others in plain sight.

Many of them operate as vigilantes, outlaws, bounty hunters and so on — trying to find a place and purpose in a land that is hostile towards them. Armed with a hard attitude, unique abilities and cool customized weaponry, the Enchanted’s world is shattered when they discover that some unknown enemy has found a way to break through their mystic immortality and begins to slaughter them one by one starting with the killing of the half bionic/half wooden warrior, Pinocchio.

These events force the Enchanted to band together for the first time and confront this deadly threat, putting aside past conflicts and disputes in order to survive what awaits all of them.

AR: What inspired this concept?

NP: I’ve always been very interested in classic folklore and the characters from traditional fairytales but also wanted to create a unique, gritty world where I could incorporate some of these characters and take some of the elements from their stories but twist them, pump them up and re-establish them in a new way. I had a very clear idea from the beginning of how I wanted to approach this book visually, hopefully developing an art style that’s not often seen in interior work in comics.